Leaf faces new hearing in Randall, official says

Leaf

Randall County Criminal District Attorney James Farren said Ryan Leaf is coming back to Texas.

Leaf, the former West Texas A&M assistant football coach who pleaded guilty to felony drug charges in 2010, was imprisoned in Montana after violating conditions of his placement in a drug rehabilitation center there.

Farren said the former No. 2 NFL draft pick, who was put on probation after the guilty pleas, will return to Randall County to face another court hearing.

“We anticipate that he will return to Texas and be prosecuted by Judge Board in the 181st District court,” Farren said, adding he will begin the process of determining the best way to get Leaf to Randall County.

Farren said there are two possibilities.

If Leaf agrees to plead no contest on the charges leveled at him in Texas, and a Montana magistrate agrees to do the same in Montana, Leaf will be tried there. He will serve out the time connected to the Montana charges and then return to Texas to face his charges here, Farren said.

If these two conditions are not met, Farren said Randall County would have to bring him back to be tried by a judge in Texas, return him to Montana to finish his sentence there, then bring him back to serve his sentence in Randall County.

“One way or another we will be bringing him back to Texas, either the expensive way or the inexpensive way,” he said.

He said Leaf faces several felony charges, some of which carry two to 10 years or two to 20 years in prison.

Leaf’s legal troubles began in 2009, when he resigned as WT’s quarterbacks coach before a Randall County grand jury indicted him on drug and burglary charges.

The indictment said Leaf broke into a Canyon apartment and stole an unknown quantity of the painkiller hydrocodone, which an injured WT player used at the time.

Authorities said the criminal investigation found Leaf had obtained nearly 1,000 pain pills from area pharmacies in an eight-month span, which resulted in eight felony charges.

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